Pollen release

Here is a series of photographs capturing the events of anthesis. The photographs were taken under a low power dissecting microscope, over a period of 5 minutes. Normally these events are hidden inside the floret; the first visible sign of anthesis is the appearance of spent anthers dangling outside the spikelet.

In these pictures the outer glume of the spikelet and the lemma of the first floret have been removed so that the events that normally happen inside the floret can be seen.